I can draw only at a basic level, I used to doodle all the time when I was bored in school, and have recently thought that maybe what I am missing in 3d art, is not knowing how to physically draw, and maybe also not understanding the shape of things as artists draw them as well. So, it can’t hurt, but will it help improve the way I work on 3d art?
Yes it should help. Drawing is a great way of visualizing ideas but more importantly, getting proportions right.
What Kinryu said. Learning to draw is about learning to see. You can’t model proportions if you can’t see them. And, trust me, until you’ve trained your eye in a drawing class, you aren’t really seeing what’s there, you’re ‘seeing’ what your brain tells you is there. There’s a difference. Taking a class is probably the quickest way to learn, but you could just get a book on ‘drawing from life’ at the library, a sketch book, a pencil and an eraser, and begin.
Also, if you can draw, you can make your own concept art for making characters. You don’t have to have a photograph, you can make the orthos yourself.
This has been my biggest drawback in 3d art, is the fact that I have to rely on others drawings or photos, thanks for the advice! I’ve already got a greater understanding of facial proportions after having watched a few drawing videos on youtube, and now I’m practicing what I’ve learned. I figured I’d start off with people, as that is the area that fascinates me the most, and probably the hardest thing to do, if I can accomplish this, I can probably draw lots more stuff. Is my reasoning wrong? Should I be starting with simple?
Quite honestly, “I must dissent.” 
The truth of the matter is, I will never approach the intuitive, “natural,” skills of my second nephew, who can whip-out fantasy cartoon art with an apparent ease that sometimes makes me want to “invite him to go fishing on” … some nearby bridge over some nearby fast-flowing river … “
… … ;)” …
As for me, I spent quite a few years in the world of commercial photography, and therefore this is still the preferred point-of-view from which I approach this subject. I see computer graphics as giving me “the penultimate camera,” in front of which I am free to stage whatever 3D scene I like, and the computer will sort out all the messy details. CG allows me to be a filmmaker, magically free to float my cameras in the air and to point those cameras directly at light-sources which they nevertheless cannot “see.”
So, “on the one hand, no.” To me, computer graphics does not rely on your ability to draw.
However: just like photography, computer graphics does rely upon your ability to see. Specifically, “to see as your appointed camera does, and then to maneuver that camera’s vision to your appointed ends.”
Visualization, whether applied in drawing, sculpting, 3d modelling, photography, texturing, film-making, graphic design, ui development, is the component required. It can be developped. When I started 3d modelling, I couldn’t draw. 3d modelling taught me how to visualize things, and now I can draw at an above average level.
Auralization, whether applied in music, composition, sound effect creation, or hours recalling your favourite song is the component required for anything audio based. The ability to ‘see’ things that aren’t there is for graphics, but to ‘hear’ things that aren’t there is another skill. I use it in composition and improvisation, and it has allowed me to analyse sounds I hear so I can reproduce them digitally.
I am sure there are ‘touchilization’ ‘smellerization’ and ‘tasterization’ required for stuffed toy makers, deoderant designers ans chefs, but I have little skill in those areas.
You can be a perfectly good cgi artist without being able to draw, but you will be slowed down because drawing would let you create concepts quicker to evaluate whether they are worth working on in detail, where without skill in drawing you would need to model your idea to evaluate whether thye are worth the time and effort required to bring them up to full detail level. I am not much good at drawing, so I have to model every idea I have in my head, which makes the initial stage of designing something rather tricky as i only have my minds image to work from and might have to model the basics for lots of idea before finding one i like. Whilst if i could draw well i could sketch out each concept quickly, select the good ones from those and then have an idea what i was aiming for as i began modelling.
That wasn’t the question. This was the question:
The word, ‘rely’ doesn’t appear in the question.
And, since I can’t draw, and have never learned how, I can’t further address the question.
I’m sure that “artistic sensibilities” would serve you well, and I have certainly seen amazing artwork that was created using 3D technology. What has helped is experience as a semi-professional photographer. I tend to look upon the tasks as though it was a real camera in my hands, real objects (to specific scale and size), lighting gear at my disposal and so-on. The “post-production” in the digital age is analogous to a darkroom … which I still have and still enjoy. And, just as with a photograph or videography, a final destination for the work product which consists of “film” or “a video screen.” Experience as a computer programmer also helps me.
I studied a book called, basically, How to Draw Anything, and even though it didn’t actually help me draw anything, it did give me more insights about how to observe things.
If you do have “the gift,” then I’m sure it will serve you admirably. But, if you don’t, you should not let it stop you.
It cannot be emphasized enough (IMHO) that the ability to draw is not a gift. It’s a skill. It is nurtured and improved with training and practice.
Things like perspective, straight lines and shading are handled for you in 3d environment so it’s pretty different I’d say. Couldn’t hurt to know both.
I find words like that to be encouraging … and yet still I find that I cannot pick up pencil-and-paper and draw what I see in my mind’s eye. Still. Nevertheless, I can construct a scene and, basically, “shoot it.” And thus achieve what is for my purposes a very satisfactory result. It’s leveraging what I do know something about … studio photography … and something that I am very interested in … editing and cinematography.
I look at some of the “non-competing entries” in each Weekend Challenge, and quite a few of the competing ones, and easily recognize where my own limitations lie. But Blender still enables me to use the computer to “go somewhere and be somewhere that I could not otherwise be.” And it enables me to enjoy, shall we say, “a certain form of ‘art,’” even though I have still not mastered the art of drawing. The digital computer is such an “enabling” technology . . . in so very many different ways . . .
I think you need a two pronged approach. Drawing portraits can become much more productive when you understand and can express some simpler things, like values and intersections and proportions and perspective. But, don’t stop drawing people to concentrate on more basic techniques: use the basic techniques to improve your portraiture. Some of the basic stuff can be pretty tedious and boring, and doing something fascinating at the same time will keep you motivated, especially when you see your basic knowledge showing up in the fascinating stuff.
I can add one extra note to this topic of discussion, when it comes to looking at reference material (photogrpahs, diagrams and other peopes drawings of the thing you are trying to model, or images giving inspiration for features on that model) if you can draw it, a simple sketch to highlight the lines, however bad your drawing skills might be and however poor the proportions on the drawing might be, you stand a much betetr chance of modelling th shape correctly. Somehow the act of working through the image in your head to the point where you are able to sketch the key lines of the 3d shape, even if like my attempts at this those key lines are not very similar to the true proportions, helps you “get a feel” of the 3 dimensional shape better than merely looking at the image ever could, so this can certainly be helpful when preparing to model something.
Visual art composes forms. There are a lot of fundamental skills that translate over to different mediums. Drawing is probably helpful for all types of visual art because it helps to build awareness of and reproduction of forms. It tends to help with topology because it relates to flow in some ways. It could help quite a bit with texturing too.